Values in the summary table and what they mean

Individual weights

The number of lifts performed in 1 kg steps.

The maximum load

The colour band of this load tells you how severe the heaviest lifting task is.

The 25th percentile load

The 25th and 75th percentile loads tell you something about how spread out are the loads that are being handled. Half of the loads are between these two values. As the loads get more variable, the difference between them gets bigger.
The 25th percentile load tells you something about the lighter loads that are being handled. A quarter of loads weigh less than this, and three-quarters weigh more so it is mid-way between the lightest weight and the median. It’s the middle point of the light half of the job.

The average load (mean load)

This is total weight handled divided by the total number of lifts. This is what the worker would handle if all the loads weighed the same. The colour band tells you the level of risk of the overall demands of the task.

The middle load (median load)

If you arrange all the weights in sequence this is the middle value. It splits the weights into a heavy half and a light half. Like the mean, the colour band of the median tells you the level of risk of the overall task.

The most common load (the mode)

This is the weight that is handled most often. If this is heavier than the mean or the median then check if you can reduce the number of times that items of this weight are handled. Its colour band tells you the level of risk of handling the most common weight.

The 75th percentile load

The 75th and 25th percentile loads tell you something about how spread out are the loads that are being handled. Half of the loads are between these two values. As the loads get more variable, the difference between them gets bigger.
The 75th percentile load tells you something about the heavier loads that are being handled. Three-quarters of loads weigh less than this, and one quarter weigh more so it is mid-way between the median and the maximum weight. It’s the middle point of the heavy half of the job.

The carry factor

This takes account of the amount of effort and time spent in carrying loads. It converts the total distance carried into an equivalent number of lifts and adds them to the bar for the mean value. If you don’t enter any carry distances then the height of this bar is the same as the mean bar and it will be hidden behind it.

Overall colour band/score for MAC score sheet

This colour band and score are what should be entered into the ‘Load weight and lift/carry frequency’ line of the MAC score sheet.

Total load handled

This is the total of the weights of all the individual lifts.

The total number of carries

This is the total number of carries of more than 2 m distance.

The carry distance

This is the total distance involving carries of more than 2 m distance.